Cannes President Spike Lee prematurely unveils 2021 Palme d’Or winner – deadline

Cannes Film Festival jury chairman Spike Lee appeared to inadvertently lift the veil on this year’s Palme d’Or winner – naming Julia Ducournau Titanium – after confusion at the start of tonight’s closing ceremony. Watch the moment further down on this page.

The event hostess asked Lee, in French, if he could reveal the evening’s “top prize”. Instead of reading this as the chronological top prize, Lee appeared to regard it as the “top spot,” going on to say Titanium had won the Palme.

Confusion reigned and the hostess tried to resolve the situation by moving quickly to the award that was to be revealed at that time – best actor for Nitrameby Caleb Landry Jones. Lee then urged her to speak to him in English to avoid further confusion, causing the audience to laugh a lot.

Below, the clip courtesy of Canal +.

We came close to disaster and a somewhat premature announcement of the Palme d’Or 😱 # Cannes2021 pic.twitter.com/8uBfYl2orI

– CANAL + (@canalplus) July 17, 2021

As you might expect, Twitter exploded with ceremony attendees noting the mistake and making comparisons to the 2017 Oscars Finals, when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announced La La Land as a winner for best picture when he was in fact Moonlight.

Later in the ceremony, Lee almost unveiled the Palm again early on. “In 63 years of life, I have learned that people have a second chance, this is my second chance. I apologize for screwing up. It took a lot of suspense in the night, I understand it wasn’t on purpose, ”he said, before starting to announce the prize before the hostess again rushed to stop him so that Sharon Stone can take the stage and make the announcement. .

While the premature unveiling was unfortunate, that doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a historic Palme winner – Ducournau only becomes the second woman to win the award, after Jane Campion who did. with The piano 28 years ago, and the first to win the award in solo.